Chandler: Out-of-the-way stops serve delightful dishes

Chip Chandler

No pork intestine kabobs were consumed in the writing of this week’s cover story on hidden treasure restaurants.

Whew.

The last time I hit the town to uncover new places to eat, I sampled the food at Tri’s Market on Northeast 24th Avenue, and while most of what I ate there was pretty tasty, I still can’t forget the way that kabob oozed when I bit into it.

I hated that oozing.

This time out, though, I was all smiles.

Elsewhere, you’ll read about English Field Restaurant, Real Food Cafe and Tsunami Japanese Steakhouse & Thai Cuisine, all three of which offered some real delights.

Tsunami was a particular surprise. I’ve driven past it countless times because my parents live in the area, but I never quite knew what to expect from a Japanese steakhouse inside an old convenience store. What I found was every bit as good as any of Tsunami’s fancier relatives will offer, as well as the rapturously good asparagus with lobster sauce, a dish I’ve yet to see on another local menu.

Real Food Cafe, like Tsunami, was recommended by a reader on the Get Out! Facebook wall, and it took me a minute to connect it to the food that I’ve heard friends raving about for several months. Obviously, I should listen to my friends more often because I’m still craving another bite of the three cheese crepe, a delectable combination of Swiss cheese, goat cheese and gouda that had the most amazingly rich taste. Spectacular.

At English Field, I was blown away by the fresh avocados piled onto my cobb salad sandwich, at least half a large avocado dripping with molten blue cheese crumbles, and as positively decadent as it sounds. And that’s to say nothing of the view, seeing commuter jets and private planes taking off just feet away.

My only regret? That I missed eating lunch with actor Morgan Freeman by a day. And by “eating lunch,” I mean eating a few tables down from him in the cozy restaurant, which is good enough for me.

Halloween haunts

This week’s issue also previews the opening of the season’s remaining haunted houses. As always, Halloween is a favorite holiday at Get Out!, and we’ll go all out for it.

Next week, you’ll get a look inside the haunts, and farther down the road, we’ll do a full Halloween roundup of events for our Oct. 26 issue.

That’s where you come in: Make sure we know what public Halloween events are going on, whether it’s a costume contest at your favorite bar, a spooky fundraiser or whatever you’ve got. Email, Facebook or tweet us by Oct. 22.

Failure to communicate

And finally, I hope you have fun reading my interview with Texas singer William Clark Green.

As you’ll see, we had some difficulty connecting for our chat, which happens every so often. Singers are only human, and sometimes cellphones aren’t in range when they need to be, or time zones get confusing, or in Green’s case, the party goes on a little too long the night before. Been there, believe me.

And for Green, the occasional excessive night of drinking has been beneficial. “Drunk on Desire,” one of his favorite tracks from his last album, “Misunderstood,” was written in a drunken email exchange with former Amarillo resident Charlie Shafter.

“Exchange” might be putting it lightly, though. The pair, who really are good friends, started arguing about how the song should be recorded.

“Finally, at the end of the email conversation, I said, ‘How about I do my own (expletive) song and you do yours,’” Green said. “His version is amazing. It’s completely different from mine. I ended up liking his version better.”